The Florida National Organization for Women calls for the resignation of Sen. Jack Latvala, accused this week by seven women of sexual harassment. Apparently, it was not difficult to find women willing to talk about the culture of sexual intimidation under the protection of anonymity. This is understandable as they know they would lose their jobs or influence in Tallahassee if they came forward publicly.

Powerful men do not have the right to grope and accost staff members without retribution. Women should not have to live in fear of losing their jobs if they don’t play along with a sexually charged, intimidating working environment.

One has to wonder if the male-dominated Florida Legislature won’t see more accusations as women and men feel safer to come forward with their stories. I won’t be surprised if this is the tip of the iceberg. There are so few women in power in Tallahassee that this culture of harassment and sense of entitlement has had many years to foster and thrive. We hope all predators are identified and removed as soon as possible so legislators can do their jobs in Tallahassee in a safe work environment.

Florida NOW hopes this will start with the resignation or forced removal of Sen. Latvala.

Terry Sanders, Indialantic

Editor’s note:Sanders is president of Florida NOW.

A fine, proper Veterans Day

It was a joy to see how veterans were treated on Veterans Day this year. It was more than a holiday; it was a celebration of the pain and sacrifices thousands of men and women made over the years to keep our nation safe. It acknowledged the realization that those sacrifices were made on behalf of a grateful government that committed our nation to fight around the world.

It is wonderful to see the outreach of love extended in airports to servicemen and women when they return home from places like Iraq and Afghanistan. What an extraordinary contrast to the way my generation was treated when we returned from serving in Vietnam. American citizens in airports called us unimaginably offensive names. We were blamed for the war and simply had to adjust to an unappreciative public who treated us as vermin who didn’t deserve respect.

I don’t know what turned the tide, but it is very much appreciated that the American public has finally recognized that soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen fight in wars not of their making. That the blame for our overseas incendiary commitments belong to the residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., and not to the men and women who sacrifice so much to keep our nation safe. I sincerely hope our citizens continue to appreciate those sacrifices.

Donald L. Gilleland, Suntree

Let's talk facts in gun debate

I feel a need to respond to Marshall Frank’s recent column that calls for common sense in the gun debate. While I typically agree with many of his thoughts and ideas, I have serious issues with some of his proposals concerning the Second Amendment.

The first proposal he made is to ban repeating (semiautomatic) firearms. Apparently, Mr. Frank feels that single-shot derringers are sufficient for the self-defense of the average citizen. Never mind that criminals and terrorists can obtain any weapon they want through the black market, or that police departments nationwide are stocking up on machine guns and grenade launchers.

He also calls for closing the so-called “gun show loophole,” which is code for a ban on private sales of firearms. To my knowledge, there has never been a documented instance of a mass murderer or terrorist getting their weapons from a private sale at a gun show. This step has long been on the wish list of the anti-gun crowd, because it will result in national registration and confiscation of all legally owned guns.

Mr. Frank appears to forget or ignore the fact that our government failed to stop any of these mass shootings even when multiple red flags were raised before most of these incidents. I would like to remind everyone that the recent church massacre was stopped not by a government agent, but a NRA member with a semiautomatic rifle.

Mike Corley, Melbourne

Tax reform: Do the math

It is hard to believe that most people have not done simple math on how the tax reform bill affects them. That that average family that the politicians always refer to.

For example, if you are married and have three children and do not itemize, you currently get a standard deduction of $12,000, plus five exemptions of $4,050 or $20,250 for a total of $32,500 before you start to compute your taxes.

Under the proposed bill that would be a $24,000 standard deduction with zero for exemptions. Do the math — your taxable income has just increased by $82,250. It will take significant credits and percentage changes to reach the savings certain politicians say you will get. The math gets even worse if you happen to have, say, $15,000 of itemized deductions. Now if you are married with no children and do not itemize, you could get about a $4,000 reduction in taxable income.

This tax bill is like all the others — just a shell game to make you think you are going to come out ahead. One would think that for all the years the politicians were talking about tax reform, they could have come up with something a whole lot better, that really benefited the country and its citizens.